Before settling on a web site design, you should first consider the needs and interests of your target audience.As a business owner, you’ve already researched the demographics of your potential customer base and have built your marketing plan around the needs and interests of that audience.Some of the same rules that govern advertising strategies also apply to website design.

For example, younger consumers tend to have shorter attention spans and gravitate towards websites with quick information and interactive materials.Bright colors, videos, and shorter sentences appeal to this unique demographic.The more you can engage them in interacting with your site, the better.

On the other hand, older, more educated audiences, have a tendency to want the opposite.Business owners and executives gravitate more towards quality rather than quantity and value sites that provide more information and less graphics.Cooler colors, static pictures, and educational materials appeal to this audience.

Age and education are not the only factors, however, and you’ll need to be aware of all the variables of your target audience before settling on a web site design.Gender, income, and geographic location all play important roles in establishing the needs and desires of your client base.In order to get a better feel for the types of sites that attract your target demographic, browse web sites and magazines that have proven appeal to that market.News web sites, online networking sites, and dating sites all target specific audiences, and you can get a good idea of what appeals to your target market by studying the layout, color scheme, and navigation of these sites.

Once you have a good idea of what appeals to your ideal customer, hire a web design company that can help you build a web site that attracts your target audience.Certain web designers specialize in developing web sites that appeal to the specific demographic of your customers.

This is the first in a series of articles on ”Making Your Web Site More Appealing.” The next article will focus on Colors and Designs.

This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Web Site Design.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Making Your Web Site More Appealing: Start with Audience Analysis”